Author: Complete Controller

When the tax season starts, taxpayers need many tools that would help them pay taxes. A lot of tools have been created for bookkeepers so that they can pay their taxes more smoothly. There is a lot of software, books, and tools that are made for bookkeepers. Following are discussed some key points and some main things that bookkeepers should keep up with them. They should learn these things before the season starts because it is good to know something before the deadline, as it will help you work in an effective way when the tax season begins.

Learn new software

Many bookkeepers are still using old desktop-based software, and now it is time for them to move to the new and advanced type of cloud-based software such as QuickBooks and Xero. This software will help bookkeepers to collaborate with their clients and without overwriting other professionals’ work. If you are still using old software that uh does not allow you so much, then, in this case, there is a Ledger software for you that mails and emails on your behalf, and it is 1099 software. Although you must pay before using this software, it helps you a lot to say that it is worth buying it.

Communication Portal for clients

Many taxpayers are using software that will draft emails on their behalf, and there is a love-hate relationship between the bookkeepers and emails. Sending emails is vital in this field, but we still must remind most of our customers not to send sensitive and personal information through emails because it is too dangerous in this field. Luckily, a considerable number of tools are available to streamline client communication and document sharing with each other. In the past, those clients who did not know how to use this software had to face a lot of difficulties in this case, but nowadays, there are different software such as client hub, and it is straightforward for clients to use them. The client communication portal has a lot of benefits, such as keeping your inbox clean and protecting the sensitive information of present clients. It also helps to interact with your team members. If there is any difficulty they are facing in this procedure, they can contact through emails.

Software for video conferencing and scheduling

No one has time during this hectic tax season to schedule back and forth meetings, and it will also waste the time of you and your clients and your team members. There is a lot of specific software for scheduling, such as Calendly, it will help you get rid of stress during these hectic tax season days, and it will also help save your and your clients and administration time. Create a link that would be specific for your certified public accountants and other tax pairs and then block their time so it will help you to meet with them at a particular time, and it will not waste your time. It will also help you manage your time, and we will build a strong relationship and potential relation with your customers. There is also a solution if you want to have a meeting with more than one, and if you need to schedule the appointment, you can use different software. There is software known as a doodle, and it is precisely for meeting with more than one person. And you can ask your team members which time is convenient for them, and you can just schedule a meeting at that time. Suppose your client is far away from you and you want to have an in-person experience with them. In that case, you can use conference call with them through different apps such as Google and zoom, but as you know that this software and these apps were used in the past, especially if you want to share some information with them, you still must email them. So, there is a solution for this problem, and there is software known as connect four. To communicate for help, you make a conference video call and share files with your clients simultaneously because, in the zoom, you can still not share files with your clients and your other people present in the conference video call. So, it is a plus point of that application that it will help you share files as well.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Bookkeeping is so much more than just recording the internal and external cash flow. It helps companies to excel in their past performance, evaluate their current operations, and make wise decisions for the future. Every entrepreneur must follow a bookkeeping cleanup checklist. Bookkeeping is an essential aspect for every business owner out there, and it helps them reserve their strength for rainy days. 

When a business’s bookkeeping records fall out of order, the reports no longer provide guidance, nor do they assist with the company’s tax return filings in case of an audit. Unfortunately, incomplete books might prevent a business from qualifying for loans and credit. Inaccurate bookkeeping can be a destructive part of a small business owner’s life, but it will be equally frustrating for larger enterprises. 

The following guide will walk you through the stages of precise bookkeeping cleanup projects to ensure that your accounts remain stable and healthy. Regardless of the reasons you want to earn from your bookkeeping cleanup projects, the below strategies will help you map out a successful plan. 

Identify the Problems: If you are serious about the confidentiality of the financial books, you must be aware that there’s always room for improvement. However, if you are content with your bookkeeping tactics, you might be drowning secretly inside the accounting graveyard. Among other chores, it is effortless for minor issues to go unnoticed for years. Still, they can be an excellent reason for your business’s destruction, so it is feasible to take precautions beforehand. 

Prevent any further damage:

After recognizing the source of your problems, you will find remedies to fix them. However, it would be wise to consider the outcomes and ensure your books suffer no further damage. At this point, you’ve to make sure that a reliable accounting system manages all the internal cash flows under the eye of an experienced bookkeeper. 

Select a professional bookkeeper or software: 

Suppose you have been outsourcing the bookkeeping responsibilities and getting consistent negative results. In that case, it might be the right time to find a professional one and hand him over the operations. For small businesses, bookkeeping software might come in handy as it would be less expensive and penetrable.

Diversify management:

It might have appeared a smart move to have invoices directly sent to one department, the billing reports to another, and so on. However, internal smartness is not your most significant trouble currently. It is far more essential that one employee at the company be responsible for receiving and sending all the incoming source documents related to your finances. After every document gets accounted for, you can precede it to the destination. 

Analyze the problematic areas:

After reviewing and recording the financial documents, you can now begin addressing the problems you found earlier. This guide cannot determine every mishap you might have discovered, but you will indeed find a few helpful remedies to implement in your situation. 

Establish a clean system for bookkeeping:

Now that you must select a new bookkeeping system recognize the problems that influenced the previous ones, and analyze your accounts what exactly is wrong. Now it is time to develop an accurate and complete set of bookkeeping of the period. Start by setting up a list of accounts in your chosen bookkeeping software and enter each cash transaction attentively. Preferring this bookkeeping cleanup checklist for your official requirements, and following it regularly, will result in accuracy of the accounts. 

Reconcile the credit and cash accounts:

A proper bookkeeping cleanup checklist would be imperfect without coordinating the cash and credit accounts. You will start by associating your cash accounts and repeating the same procedure for the credit accounts. It is a pivotal cleanup activity that you must consider implementing if there are not any red flags. 

Upon finishing, it would be wise to make a strategy to rectify your cash accounts regularly. Some accounts might require a monthly reconciliation, but cash accounts utilized constantly might need a weekly reconciliation. However, there is still room for the interpretation of valuable financial information of the company. 

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

When an inventory sells, it appears in the income statement under the COGS account. COGS applies to costs that are related directly to producing goods that specifically mark a sale. The balance sheet has an account, and that account is known as the current assets account. An item is under this account, and it is known as inventory. Inventory is a most critical asset for distributors. They use a manufacturers’ raw materials.

Periodic inventory

Under the periodic system, the amount in the inventory account does not update when they are purchasing it and does not update during that time. The account is only updated after a year is completed, and the new year starts after the end of one year. It means that the account will show you the cost of the stock for last year. All the purchases that are related to merchandise are entirely and profoundly recorded in either one or more than one purchase account. When the year is about to end, the purchase accounts are closed by the company. By following the periodic system, there is no cost of goods sold in the account to record the sale of merchandise.

Assumptions for cost flow

IRS accepts three methods to move the cost to the income statement from the balance sheet. Three methods accept that FIFO (First in First Out), LIFO (Last in First Out), and Average Cost are the accepted ways and forms. They display what their names suggest and mean that the order in which costs skip from the inventory can stay from removing goods from it in physical form. First in, first out has a meaning. They mean that goods that arrive in the first place should be removed first at their original cost. It does not matter if the cost of goods sold has increased for the new batch. It would help if you had to record at their original price.

Perpetual form of inventory system

While following a perpetual system, the stock account is being updated at regular intervals by the company. The actual cost of products that purchase the suppliers is initially, and without mistakes, added to the account. On the other hand, those products and merchandise sold to the customers are continuously being removed from the account. There is no chance for purchase accounts in this perpetual system of inventory. The actual price of products that sell on a budget and that account is under debt at the time of the sale is applied the same for the cost related to the merchandise. Sale and accounts receivable are added to the record as one entry. On the other hand, the various products that add to the inventory list decrease, and they start to make maximum the price of products sold to the customers.

FIFO (first-in, first-out), LIFO (last in first out), and Average cash flow assumptions are merged with any inventory systems, either perpetual inventory systems or periodic inventory systems, to find out about the actual cost stock at hand. It depends upon you that how you can choose any one of them according to convenience and ease.  

Indication of a perpetual system

The perpetual system clearly shows and ensures the company that their Inventory account will be continuously or perpetually updated regularly. In other words, you can say that the balance in the Inventory account will start to increase by the amount of the goods purchased. This cost will be decreased by the cost of the goods that are being sold. So, it illustrates that the balance in the Inventory account should tell you more about the cost of the inventory items that are on your hand right now. Also, the companies should count the actual number and cost of their goods at the current time (take a physical inventory) at least once a year. They should adjust the perpetual records if necessary for the company.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA), earmarks funds for potentially forgivable loans to support small businesses. The funds, or loans, bear interest at 1% and are provided to eligible small businesses through SBA-approved lenders, which allows them to grow or overcome the problems they might face. 

Now a small business that received a PPP loan should make sure that they record every detail regarding the loan to determine whether it has enough qualifying expenses to ensure that it forgives its PPP loan. They also need to register their basis for certifying the need for the loan. This article will discuss how a small business owner can record PPP Loan Income and Expenses.

Eligibility for PPP loans

The eligibility criteria for a business to apply for PPP loans is:

1. A Small Business that meets the Small Business Administration (SBA) standard
2. Sole proprietors, self-employed persons, or independent contractors.
3. Any business with less than five hundred employees
4. Any non-profit organization with less than five hundred employees
5. A small business owner also needs to prove that a loan is necessary to continue its operations and move forward.

Set up a separate bank account

Keeping a separate bank account for your business is always an innovative idea. Hence, it would be best if you did the same for PPP loans. It helps to keep your funds organized and allows you to track your cash flow. It will also allow for a clean audit trail without having any impact on regular transactions. Keeping a separate account for PPP loans will also help simplify the loan forgiveness process by clearly showing how you used PPP funds for only eligible expenses.

Use accounting software

You can also use accounting software such as QuickBooks to manage finances more efficiently and track and organize your PPP loans. You can create a new expense account to track these transactions and record eligible PPP loan expenses.

Separate PPP loans from business revenue

Mixing the PPP loans and business revenue will make it extremely difficult to track transactions and expenses, hence making loan forgiveness difficult. You can solve this problem by setting up a separate bank account for PPP loans and using the already existing one for business revenue. 

Record eligible expenses

You should record all the expenses paid for using the PPP funds, and you should make the payment from the new account created specifically for the PPP funds. It will give you a clear picture of where you spent the funds and whether the expenses were eligible to ensure a clean audit trail when applying for forgiveness. If the funds use non-allowable PPP expenses, you will not have a pristine audit trail.

To ensure that you get PPP loan forgiveness, you must use the loan only to cover eligible expenses. Which are:

Payroll costs (60% of the loan amount)

1. Employee salaries, wages, tips, etc.
2. Employee benefits (medical, retirement benefits, insurance, vacation, sick days, etc.)
3. State and Local Taxes

Non-payroll costs (40% of the loan amount)

1. Utilities
2. Rent payments
3. Mortgage obligations and interest on the mortgage
4. Property damage
5. looting
6. Protective equipment
7. Supplier cost
8. Any expenditure necessary for operations

It is necessary under all circumstances to record when you use the PPP loan to cover eligible expenses. You also need to register if you cover non-eligible expenses using the PPP loans. However, you will need to reimburse that amount.

If your business has more PPP loan money than you need, you can either return the leftover money or use the excess money as a low-interest loan. In those cases, it is essential to document every transaction and record it in your books.

Forgiveness of the PPP loan

The Small Business Administration (SBA) may decide to forgive your loan partially or fully if you retain employees and maintain salary levels. In either case, you then need to document and record the overlooked portion of money in your books in two ways:

1. Partially forgiven loan
2. Fully forgiven loan

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

There is a contrast between the financial principle of a nonprofit organization and a regular company. However, the primary purpose of a nonprofit organization is awareness or fundraising for a social cause. The government and the public scrutinize their every move.

Unlike profit-generating ventures, a nonprofit organization relies on fundings and public support in donations, program revenue, and grants. They must prove the credibility of their financial records how, when, and where the money is spent—all to be clear in the public eye.

Taxation laws are different and complex for nonprofits. Therefore, Nonprofit accountants must keep the organization’s books up to date in conformity with state and federal regulations. Failure to keep the books to legal requirements jeopardizes the organization’s tax-exempt status and exposes it to legal risk.

Here are some details to give you an idea of tax accounting for nonprofits.

Tax exemptions and deductions

Most charitable and fundraising organizations can apply for tax exemption from federal income taxation. 

According to section 501 of IRS:

This tax code section pertains to charitable, nonprofit, and religious organizations exempt from paying federal taxes to the IRS.

While the IRS and federal law may determine tax-exempt status, state law determines nonprofit status. As a result, before filing for tax-exempt status, the IRS needs you to secure a nonprofit group from your state.

While they can exempt from income taxes, there can be exceptions if the organization has generated revenue by working outside their set scope and unrelated to their mission & vision. Then they will be responsible for tax payments on this profit if their gross income is more than one thousand dollars. It is called unrelated business income tax UBIT.

However, up-to-date tax accounting strategies can help to reduce taxable profits. A nonprofit organization can deduct any payments paid to corporate officials as well as wages provided to employees. They can deduct maintenance and repair charges, loan interest, employee benefit programs, and charitable contributions. They can record any losses experienced while attempting to earn profit through commercial activity.

Bookkeeping:

To develop effective accounting strategies, the first step is a nonprofit-friendly bookkeeping system. There are many manuals to automate options for bookkeeping. But the primary goal of this is to obtain receipts that should be recorded and organized (i.e., donations or in-kind contributions). You should keep track of spending (i.e., payouts from funds your nonprofit controls or expenditures it makes), Keep track of your cash disbursements, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and payroll.

Financial statement:

Nonprofits are not required to pay taxes, but they must produce a yearly return to explain how they spent their cash and met their objective. Tax-exempt organizations are set to an extremely high standard. Donors, the government, the media, and the public can expect to scrutinize their operations. As a result, their financial statements must demonstrate their mission. In addition, if a nonprofit organization fails to file an annual report or submits it late, the IRS may levy penalties and taxes.

As discussed above, bookkeeping can help in tax accounting as well as generating financial statements. Getting these statements ready as quickly as possible during tax season can be time-saving and stress-free. There is a more straightforward way. It is preferable to let your nonprofit accounting software prepare the financial statements required for nonprofit tax accounting most of the time.

Activity statements:

Profit-based businesses leverage the profit and loss statements to describe their income & expenses. Whereas nonprofits must submit a detailed and precise account of activities to show income generated and cost. The information of activities, also known as the operational statement, is the nonprofit equivalent of the revenue statement. These incomes obtain funds, donations, and grants. And costs include the utilities, wages, rent, office supplies, etc. 

In nonprofit tax accounting, two types of financial statements are prepared for external evaluations: 

1. Cash Flow Statement: Descriptions of Cash inflows and outflows.
2. Functional Expense Statement: Describes the expenses incurred throughout the reporting period.

Hence, a proper taxation system is a crucial part of any nonprofit organization. And with tax accounting, nonprofits can do their level best.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Taking care of a family is difficult enough, but managing funds might be even more difficult. Not only do you want to give them everything you have, but you also want to do it all on a budget.

Here are some top tips for creating and managing a budget that will supply your family with what they require.

Keep a record of your spending habits:

There are various free tools available online that can help you keep track of your current spending habits. Mint.com has a fantastic budgeting tool that categorizes all your income and expenses as they enter and exit your account. It will allow you to spot patterns and identify when you spend a little more than you want in a particular category.

Make a reasonable budget:

Budgeting might be tricky, so make one that is realistic to your life. Use the information you’ve gained from tracking your spending habits to create a rent, mortgage, utilities, entertainment, and groceries budget. Look for places where you might minimize costs to put more money into investments and savings.

Consider both the long and short terms:

It is vital to plan from week to week or month to month. However, planning for emergencies, down payments on autos, house improvements, and other expenses is critical. To ensure that you are putting money down for the long term, consider splitting your salary into various accounts.

Bring the entire family on board:

It’s challenging to be a budget enforcer, especially when it comes to things like eating out. When you’re weary and the kids are hungry, it’s tempting to just run through a fast-food establishment. Instead, allow children to assist in the selection of dinner menus. It will be easier for you to make selections like these if they agree with you.

Strategize your savings:

There are numerous options available to assist you in paying less for the products you require. Consider using coupons or joining a rewards program at your favorite businesses. Americasaves.org gives some excellent advice on how to save more money.

Set up bill payment days as per your budget:

Setting aside time to focus solely on getting things paid and dealing with any unique issues with a vendor is critical. Make a consistent schedule, whether it’s the same day every week or the 15th and 30th. Find a way to reward yourself because the procedure can be tedious. Cappuccino and jammies are both excellent choices.

Take some time to re-evaluate your budget:

Budgets fluctuate as your family’s needs change. Prepare to make changes to your budget after a few months of trial and error. If you realize that you aren’t spending nearly as much on groceries as you expected, but part of that money into an area where you could benefit from a cushion.

Look for a substitute to make some more earnings:

Find creative ways to make money on the side to put a few extra dollars in your pocket. You can earn points by viewing movies, filling out surveys, and doing quizzes with incentive systems like Swagbucks and Memolink. You may then use your points to purchase gift cards from some of your favorite stores.

Limit your credit card expenses:

Although credit cards have numerous advantages, many people get into difficulty when they charge things with money they don’t have. If you obtain the benefits with a credit card, make sure you pay off the balance at the end of the month. Leaving a balance on your card might result in interest and financing costs, resulting in you paying more for an item than it is worth.

Make a budgeted home shopping list:

Using lists is one of the most effective strategies to keep to a budget. Make a list of what you’re planning to buy before you even enter the store. Take your list with you and only purchase the goods on it.

To assist you in managing your household budget, put all or any of these suggestions into practice. Though keeping track of your finances can be tedious, the benefits will be well worth the effort.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

The covid-19 pandemic compelled treasures in a few business organizations to slow down the cash flow burn that many organizations might have experienced. However, the majority of cash flow forecasting practices varied from companies resulting in crises. Financial forecasts are not just for larger enterprises; they are significant for every company stage, especially during the current unprecedented times. If you are worried about your company’s cash flow position due to the adverse impact of the pandemic on businesses, preparing a financial forecast would be a wise move. 

How to create a cash flow forecast:

Undoubtedly, cash flow forecasting can be a complex task, as it includes both the factual data from the past and the present determining the future. Chiefly, you may have to anticipate whether you will have enough cash available to continue preventing the funding issues. You can create a cash flow forecast utilizing one of the following methods. 

Direct forecasting:

This method is usually applied for a temporary cash-flow and involves estimated cash receipts from account receivables and account payables. Direct forecasting is comparatively more dependable as it contains more factual data. 

Indirect forecasting:

This method is feasible for a long-term strategy and includes a projected income statement and balance sheet. 

When you assist in cash flow forecasting solely or with the guidance of a reputable firm, you should be able to develop a sales forecast representing your expectations regarding profit and loss that combines your income with the expenditures. Once you get these two documents, you will complete cash flow forecasting. 

Utilize your sales forecast to calculate how much cash you believe will enter your business, including PPP loans. Deduct the costs from your profit and loss forecast, add up all the expenditures you will have every month, and subtract it from the total cash. 

Benefits of preparing a cash flow forecast:

As a business owner, have you ever considered the financial influence of losing clients, delayed payments, or several other scenarios, including a workplace closure? It is helpful to gauge whether you require additional funds to support your business or if you can meet the market demands and explore fresh opportunities. 

You can also implement your cash flow forecast to evaluate scenarios, and if an employee asks for a loan, how would you grant him and make the repayment policies.

In ordinary circumstances, you might review the former year’s figures to generate the sales and profit and loss forecast, which would provide the data required to see your cash flow trends and variations. With the current environment, you need more assumptions and flexible thoughts. 

Cash reserves in the business:

Through constant reviewing and updating your cash flow forecasts, you must identify the pinpoints where the risks of financial failure lie and the opportunities for quick cash generation. 

Developing efficient methods for cash collection and adjusting the terms of payment to both vendors and suppliers is significant to minimize the monetary impact. Quick implementations require across critical areas, including online sales, equipment management, and servicing the unguarded during the pandemic is sometimes necessary. However, take time to consider the consequences. 

Discounts and concessions:

There is a variety of actions you can apply. Where your clients and debtors are concerned, introduce more effective billing and receiving processes. Also, you can negotiate with the potential customers for the payment beforehand by offering a valuable discount or concessions. 

It is advisable to take approximate direct and indirect costs out of business to protect cash flow. By doing so, if you get to continue at an innovative and profitable level, you can move excess cash from other areas of the company into your capital account. Fortunately, many governments, during this challenging time, are proactively supporting businesses. 

Robust cash flow forecasting permits you to value your priorities. Remember that your key vendors and clients are ring-fenced and that both assist through this pandemic. The most prudent suggestion amid this uncertainty is to simplify the company’s financial procedures. By concentrating on limited areas, you might end up with a slight change in operations, but with a healthier conclusion and a more secured customer base. 

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Business owners find more comfortable ways to quit the workforce, leaving their businesses to shut down. The absence of succession planning is approaching at an alarming state. To secure their business, the business owners must focus on the sustainability of their practices and train and develop the following line of succession.

Business owners may not find a competent person in their in-house team. You may look for someone from the industry. There are chances that you might be left alone with no resources if you do not allow your team to run your business as the industry’s top companies will recruit them.

Although the need for succession may not be unique, successors may be. Improving a firm’s succession viability necessitates embedding a succession process into the culture and day-to-day activities. Here are three strategies for navigating the succession process and ensuring your company’s long-term viability.

Start grooming your successors at the initial stages:

It is essential to groom your employees ever since they join your company. Training your team as per your company values, objectives, mission, vision, culture, and client services are recommended. Developing the foundation services among your employees is very important. The foundational understanding will aid you in identifying future leaders who will reinforce your company’s distinctive success elements. Business owners should create teams for succession planning, assign duties and set timelines.

Create a succession planning team with roles, duties, and timelines. Business owners can outsource the specialized team from outside the industry. With proper planning and strategy, efficient succession planning can be made successful.

Delegate tasks to specialized persons:

Job delegation is a crucial element in any organization. Business owners do not complete all the client tasks themselves. Instead, delegate the tasks to the most specialized person. It is highly recommended to know your best employee. Ensure that current and future partners are working in positions that allow them to provide the best possible service to clients. They aren’t stuck in roles that are better suited for firm managers, IT specialists, marketing and business development professionals, and other specialized team roles. Be willing to promote someone who isn’t a CPA to the owner’s position, especially if they have good administrative and operational management skills. If you must outsource specialized positions, do so.

Have flexible work schedules:

Flexibility is an essential element that you should consider. Remote working has taken a boom globally since the pandemic. Work flexibility can increase the success rate of the business as this can

Two part-time partners, for example, might be a better fit if an outgoing owner worked full-time and had a substantial chunk of client business. When it comes to your senior leadership needs and what will lure the best succession prospects, don’t be afraid to think outside the box.

Every business finds out different ways and approaches and different methods for their succession planning. Business owners are highly encouraged to define their succession plans so that reaching the objective can be made easy.

Let your partner run your business:

If you founded your company with a partner or partners, you might be considering them as potential successors. Many partnerships have a mutual agreement that if one of the partners dies or becomes disabled unexpectedly, the surviving partners will agree to purchase the dead partner’s family business interests.

This arrangement can help both the business and the family cope with the stress of a sudden transition. A spouse who wants to keep their shares but doesn’t have the time or skills to help it expand may be unable to do so. A buy-sell agreement ensures that they are adequately compensated while allowing the remaining co-owners to retain control of the business.

The earlier a person gets involved in the business plan, decision-making, and rainmaking, the more likely a pool of possible successors forms. There is no such thing as a small or large company that cannot begin the process early.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

Since the pandemic struck us, the workforce operating from the offices has shifted to remote working. And it is not new; many companies have been hiring remote employees before as well.

It is a tricky task to find the best team that can fill the skill gap of your business. And if you are a new recruiter, you might have a few questions too. Like where do I post for these jobs? How to build my recruiting brand? What type of skills are needed for these jobs, and what kind of questions should be asked during the interview? But first, why give preference to Remote workers?

Because Remote working is a blessing in disguise, at first, it is a hefty task to hire someone out of your geography. But it is cost-effective, minimizes your expenditures, and is an effective way to hire the best talent among the potential candidates.

According to USA Today, by working remotely, an employee saves four thousand Dollars By not commuting to work, spending on office wear, and eating lunches away from home. Consequently, a business can save as much as 10,000 dollars per employee by cutting down on office space and other Tangible job benefits like office supplies, parking passes, etc.

Here is a guide on how to hire remotely:

Which is the best platform to hire remote workers?

Job searching websites can be the best source to narrow down your options on the deserving candidate in the pool of freelancers. Websites like

1. Career builder
2. LinkedIn
3. Behance
4. Monster.com etc.

Some of these websites focus on specific skills.

Detailed job descriptions:

Always pen down clear-cut and descriptive job listings so the applicant can get a clear picture of the role they are applying for. Elaborate on the skills required for the job. It is a crucial part of finding appropriate hires. Before writing a job description, you can take ideas from similar job listings by your competing companies or other brands from your industry on LinkedIn or Monster.com to note the main points.

By addressing each, the description will help candidates learn more about you and the role. Keep in mind that you want to make a compelling case for someone to collaborate with your company rather than just execute activities. Include different facets of your company culture and why someone might want to join your team.

Look for these attributes in Remote workers:

It is a reminder that not every professional individual can work from home. Therefore, when recruiting remote employees, make sure to hire someone who can be a pro in online working. Always look and consider the following skills to evaluate their potential.

• Time management
• Ability to freelance with or without a team.
• Organization skills
• Communication skills
• Adaptability to newer technologies
• Dynamic
• Does not shy away from asking for help.

A good recruiter is the one who figures out the needed skill set is there or not by seeing the resume. Extensive Questioning about the candidates and their skillset during the interviews can be fruitful too.

Online Presence:

Today, the world is influenced by social media. Therefore, to attract the best talent, an enterprise should have a trustworthy image online. Remote candidates strongly rely on the social media presence of a company to check the authenticity.

Company websites, social media handle play a big part in this. The career pages on your site must convey your work ethics, Vision mission & help them visualize themselves as team members and understand the terms and conditions before applying for any job.

Schedule an interview:

Compile the questions you wish to ask in a standard interview. You can start by asking about their home work environment and how they will balance their work time and personal time. How can they avoid getting distracted? Schedule a video call interview with the candidates you have shortlisted. Acquire about their tech skills and the reasons for their preferences to remote work. Discuss the remote work policy of your company and ask if they are willing to abide by it.

Remote working can fill any skill gap, but the most common skills that do not require a specific location are web development, Virtual assistants, writing and editing, Graphic designing, and Marketing.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.

A clear vision of your perfect client is critical to the success of your organization. You’ll be able to identify the most likely people to buy, eliminate those who don’t require your services, and gain a more excellent grasp of how your products and services genuinely make a difference.

One of the most typical mistakes made by new business owners is attempting to help everyone they can. While this may appear to be a good concept at first, the problem is that the larger your target market becomes, the more difficult it becomes to connect with them in a meaningful way.

What kind of customers are you looking for?

It is an ideal question which tells you about the customers of your client. This question gives you the knowledge of which type of customers your clients will be targeting. Some of your clients might have smaller customers, whereas those with million-dollar customers would be more beneficial for you.

What external issues do you have to deal with?

Understanding the day-to-day operation is vital for you. It is highly recommended to know the problems your client is going through during daily operations.

External issues are the issues that others can see and are dealing with on the surface. Continuing with the social media manager, a potential external concern for their ideal customer could be an uneven Instagram feed lacking aesthetic cohesion.

What internal issues are you dealing with?

Internal issues are the opposite of outward issues. These are the thoughts, emotions, and sentiments connected to an issue or a source of discomfort.

Returning to our social media manager’s ideal customer: They’re presumably embarrassed by their Instagram feed’s visual inconsistencies. Perhaps they’re concerned about what others think of them because they don’t post regularly, and their photos aren’t of excellent quality.

The ability to recognize and accurately describe your prospective client’s internal issues will aid you in developing a solid relationship with your audience and gaining community trust. Yes, external problems are crucial to comprehend and resolve since they are visible to the rest of the world. However, it is resolving internal issues that foster connection and loyalty with your ideal client.

What value do they look for?

Understanding your client’s customer is very important. It is not always possible that the services you provide to clients meet their customer requirements. It may seem like you offer accounting services to your clients, but what value them the most is how you respond to them and what value you provide them.

What services are you looking for and your expectations?

If you provide multiple services, it is best to ask the client about the services he would purchase from you. It is best to discuss the services, their nature, and the scope of the services. Your client may look for an accounting and taxation service. Thus, offering them an IT consulting service would be a waste of time and loss of expectation. Budget vs. actual evaluations, asset management services, and strategic planning may be a natural next step if they’ve already engaged in tax and cash flow management. Asking these questions with your leadership team can help you make smarter decisions about investing in marketing and business development, technology, talent, and procedure to attract your ideal customer.

What are the expectations from these services?

Understanding the client’s expectations is very important. Client purchases the services to enhance their sales and meet the company objective. The firm must provide these services in alignment with the client’s business objectives. It is not worth assisting if the client’s goals have not happened. The resources allocation on the client’s project happens by the expectations of the client.

About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.